Korean-American Student Killed in Seattle Shooting

A shooting at a university in Seattle killed a Korean-American student and wounded three others.

The man who was shot and killed by a lone gunman at Seattle Pacific University last Thursday was identified as Paul Lee, a 19-year-old freshman. Lee's parents had just arrived from Korea for a visit, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said Friday.

Lee was born in Portland, Oregon and entered SPU last fall.

The mentally disordered gunman had entered a building housing science and engineering classrooms and shot Lee at around 3:30 p.m.

The suspect was identified as Aaron Ybarra (26), who had a morbid fascination with the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado in 1999, in which one teacher and 12 students were killed.

"He had been planning a mass shooting and wanted to kill as many victims as possible before killing himself," detectives said.

He was pepper-sprayed by a 22-year-old engineering student while trying to reload his shotgun, and overmanned and disarmed by other students, before police came to arrest him.

"But for the great response for the people at Seattle Pacific this incident would have been much more tragic," a police officer said.